Edward's Adventure at Sea
by Robin deLynn
Summary: A short story expansion upon Edward's flying and boating period, as mentioned in my main story What Others Cannot Do. Edward learns to fly and one day crashes into the sea, suddenly his interest is in boating. This is his adventure.
1. Prologue

Edward's Adventure at Sea

Based on characters from the Twilight© by Stephanie Meyers. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No copyright infringement is intended.

"Happy Birthday Emmett," I said handing him the small wrapped box. Though we hadn't seen him or Rosalie for a while, we decided to celebrate a bit early since there was no telling when they would leave or how long they would be gone. Not that I was complaining, their thoughts very rarely drifted from the carnal bliss they had found together. There were ways to distract them and having parties was one way of doing it.

"Thanks Edward." Emmett tore the box open without removing the paper and the contents fell to the floor. In a flash he retrieved the velvet bag and ripped the seams to get to the object inside.

"Wow," Emmett sputtered. "A gold coin? Hey, Edward, this is real nice of you. It's old, I know that, so where did it come from?" he asked, ignoring its antique patina, rubbing the gold coin between his fingers, destroying said patina.

"A sunken ship," I answered, shaking my head at his lack of appreciation for the age of the coin. I should have known better.

"Wha… How did you find a sunken ship?" he asked, suddenly interested. He rolled the coin between his fingers as he stated at me. His thoughts filled with piles of gold coins waiting for him on the ocean floor.

"A dolphin led me to it," I answered reluctantly.

"A dolphin?" he laughed incredulously, suddenly flipping the gold coin in the air like a movie gangster.

"Yes!" I answered curtly, grimacing as his fingernail made little dents in the antique coin with each flip. Fool that I am, I gave it to him. It was his to do as he willed so I restrained my urge to grab it from the air.

"A flippin' fish?" he asked incredulously.

"Dolphin's are not fish. They are intelligent mammals, so don't go using them for food either," I told and warned him.

"Yuk, why would I do that?" He cringed, thinking of cold fishy blood in his mouth. He found the thought disgusting but he also totally ignored the fact that I said they were intelligent and mammals, warm blooded mammals.

"You would know if you smelled one," I answered. My vivid memory of fighting the temptation as I burned with thirst came crashing through all other thoughts. I was very sure if I had been stuck out at sea for much longer I would know firsthand how it tasted.

"Okay," he sighed, wanting to hear the story but also not wanting to be confused. "Tell me the story _from_ the very beginning. I hate it when you bring something up in the middle that would have been explained if you had just started from the beginning."

I had given Emmett a gold doubloon for his birthday and he wanted to know where I got it. Now I had to explain how I found it. Explaining things to Emmett was sometimes difficult he had so little 'worldly' experience. Even the trips to exotic places that Rosalie had taken him made little impact on him as they were just another place with a bed (or not) to romp with his wife.

Where to start? The beginning… hmmm. Well, this maybe too early but Emmett would like the plane crash story and it did relate. It _was_ how I met the dolphin.

"OK," I said. "No interruptions, okay?

"Sure," he said, as he continued to flip the coin.


	2. Crash and Splash

Based on characters from the Twilight© by Stephanie Meyers. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No copyright infringement is intended.

**A.N. I hope to publish a new chapter every other day. Sorry they are short chapters but at least you don't have to wait long for the next one to come out. This is written as a narrative instead of a conversation, because Emmett is supposed to be a silent listener. We will see how long his silence lasts.  
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Crashing

At 5000' the plane was nose down spiraling out of control. Despite my flippant early morning promise to the hangar manager of another perfect three point landing there would be no perfect landing this time. My third flight in my recently purchase newfangled airplane and I was going to crash.

_Damn, I'm going down again. Esme is going to ground me forever this time,_ I lamented, remembering her unreasonable overreaction to my first plane crash six months earlier. That airplane had exploded on impact and though I landed safely over a hundred feet away it pelted me with burning debris and scorched my clothes. She had kept me on the ground for three months.

_Well, she won't be distressed thinking I would have burned up this time,_ I thought as I looked out the windshield at the rapidly approaching crash site. The calm water of the Atlantic Ocean was quickly getting my full attention. The shoreline was miles away.

I pulled on the stick one more time but it controlled nothing.

0oo0

Emmett chortled again and I glared at him. He held his hands up in surrender but his wicked smile was still as unrepentant as his thoughts.

0oo0

I turned and struggled with the door latch for a fraction of a second before ripping it apart. When I pushed the door outward a wind gust wrenched it off its hinges. I still had hold of the fluttering door when the ripped metal of the latch grabbed the fabric on my jacket. I let go of the door. The sudden jerking of the thick fabric pulled me halfway out the doorway before my other hand caught and bent the door frame in my quick grab. Half of my jacket sleeve ripped off and flew away with the door on its own trajectory. I turned and looked at the altimeter, it read 1500' when I pushed off and safely jumped away from the spiraling airplane.

I fell, well, I flew. I held my arms out slowing my descent. My earlier escape jump had been from two hundred feet onto land, no great leap. I was going to enjoy this longer fall as I headed for the water. Anyone seeing me would also see the falling plane and presume I was a dead man anyway.

The plane fell toward the ocean ahead of me. The strong wind made harmonic noises as it streamed through the open cockpit and pushed the aircraft farther away from me. The wind roared in my ears but I caught the thoughts of nearby humans. A speedboat driver had caught the sight of the airplane in its spectacular spiraling fall from the sky and was watching intently. Two young boys were also watching intently urging him to get closer. He made a course correction and headed toward the possible crash site. However, they did not see me.

The water was rapidly getting closer. I watched the speedboat below me. I could see six people onboard three of them children. I realized with horror that it was headed to rendezvous with my exact landing spot. If I hit the boat I would probably crash right through and sink it, the children could drown. I could fall on one or more of them crushing them before the boat sank, all these people could die.

Emmett shrugged with a 'these things happen, brother' look on his face in an attempt to make me feel better, in case they had died. He was attempting to be silent during my story.

I decided I needed to make my entrance into the water sooner than the boat arrived there but I didn't know what to do. In my peripheral vision I saw a pelican diving into the water, its speed increased significantly as it folded its wings headed straight for the water. I pulled my arms in and made myself into a sleek line diving head first, my downward speed increased just enough. I entered the water and the speedboat flew over the place where I had been a second later. I plowed deeper into the water listening to their voices in my head.

Loud cursing and screams and excited yelling augmented the mental chaos of the boat's passengers. The speedboat's engine went silent.

"What's going on?" a female asked responding to the screams and her sudden soaking of ocean water.

"A man just fell into the water right in front of us!" a young female yelled wiping the water from her face with the towel she had been sitting on.

"I saw an airplane hit the water. I didn't see a man but I'm wet from something hitting the water just in front of us," an older man said.

"What airplane? What man?" The first female asked, also wiping the water from her face.

"Right there, see the ripple? Oh! It's not there. We ran over it. But that's where he went in." The young female excitedly pointed to a spot in the water behind the boat.

"Look that's where the plane went in, right over there." An excited young male pointed out the ring of disturbed water.

"Get back over there - maybe he's alive," the older female voiced her concern directing the driver of the boat.

"There is no chance anyone could have survived hitting the water that way." The man gestured to all the water in the boat. "If he wasn't already dead the water killed him, broke his neck or something," the boat driver said.

"Did you hear that smack when he hit the water?" an excited young man said to another younger male. The thought that some unknown man had just fallen to his death right in front of him troubled the young boy as he wiped the water from his face, he didn't want to remember the sound.

_Dead or alive before, I'll bet there isn't an unbroken bone in his dead body now._ The thinker was a doctor and the children's father.

The older man re-started the engine and the boat slowly turned returning to the place close to where I had entered the ocean.

"Look! That's a body!" the young male yelped when a large fish swam underneath the boat.

"No," the old man replied peering over the edge of the boat.

"Look! Is that it?" the young female asked, pointing to some seaweed.

"No," the doctor replied.

Six pairs of eyes scanned the water looking for any sign of a body. The youngest boy's vision was clouded with the tears in his eyes.

When I purposely dove into the water instead of just falling, I went deep and I kept diving. I shrugged out of my torn jacket and watched it float toward the surface. It would give them something to find. There was nothing in the pockets that would identify me.

"Oh look!" a male voice yelled as my jacket floated to the surface.

A lone dolphin, twenty feet below me, was my only witness as I leveled off about 150' below the surface and swam unhurriedly toward downed aircraft to retrieve all the identifying articles on it.

0ooo0

_THE dolphin? _Emmett queried before his eyes widened and he grimaced at his non-silent question.

I nodded and with a smile asked, "You want me to continue?"

"Yeah, I would have crashed right into them. I wouldn't have thought to speed up like that. Good thinking Edward," he said, true to his nature he was unable to remain silent.

"Thanks, now shush."

**A.N. As always, thanks for reading and I hope to hear from you. A comment or a review is always welcome.**


	3. Lost at Sea

Based on characters from the Twilight© by Stephanie Meyers. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No copyright infringement is intended.

The curious dolphin followed me. Its attention was solely on me, since I had startled it from its play. It trailed about twenty feet behind me , returning to the surface occasionally to breathe.

It followed and amazingly I could hear its thoughts, they were unlike anything I'd ever encountered. I slowed my swimming speed to listen to its mind. Its thoughts were very alien, undecipherable clicks, but not its visuals or emotions. They were easy to see and feel.

It watched me not only with its eyes but with another sight that intrigued me. I could almost see the waves of sound it was interpreting as I swam ahead, the echoes of the fish in the water and my progress toward the airplane. Watching me swim had triggered something like a motherly emotion and convinced me it was a female dolphin. Her mind filled with so many other distractions made me empathize with her. Those distractive sights or signals were similar to my mind, full of other people's thoughts. She took in each new bit of information from the sound pictures and it either went with an sensation or it was dismissed; 'fish – yum, 'fish – yuk, 'seaweed – dismissed'. Then there was me, I was 'toy/happy?'… a playmate? It was hard to tell, exactly but it seemed like she was happily curious and concerned. She was feeling pleasure watching me swim.

I reached the aircraft; it was a mess, hitting the water tore it up pretty bad. I pulled my satchel from behind the seat, for it held my maps and charts. Since it was a private aircraft it had no other identifying marks. I tried to move it but it was too much mass filled with water so I left it sitting on the ocean floor.

The dolphin swam around the aircraft still keeping an eye on my location as I decided to leave. I could still hear the speedboat occupants searching the water for me getting further away from the sunken plane.

I hadn't surface for air and she was concerned but since I didn't seem to be struggling she just followed the interesting happy toy. She came closer to me a couple of times, the third time I stopped swimming, turned and looked at her. She swam closer and I could hear the excited increase in the beating of her heart as her visuals focused on me.

There was no mental noise close to me so I went to the surface and she followed me up. I took a breath just as she blew her breath through her blowhole and I could tell her blood was hot, smelled sweet and was very appealing. It smelled better than predator blood. I was instantly thirsty, venom filled my mouth and ran down my suddenly burning throat but I resisted the hunting urge. She was far too intelligent to use as food so I continued my swim for shore.

I waded out of the water and heard her squeal. I looked back and she did a flip out of the water and resurfaced watching me. She waited eager for me to return to the water.

I laughed, shook my head and headed for home. I heard her squeal again and again. Each one was more mournful as her emotions grew sadder as I walked away. I was shocked, I had never thought about another intelligent non-human being besides vampires.

0oo0

"Uh huh," Emmett commented absently, barely registering my comment on the dolphin's intelligence or sweet smelling blood. He started flipping his coin higher and higher in the air. The coin bent with the increase of force and when he caught it he flattened it between his fingers. He glanced at me, hoping that I hadn't been paying attention. He was still listening but just barely.

0oo0

I forgot all about the dolphin during Esme's scolding and justifiable grounding. Suitably chastised, Carlisle and I went to the downed airplane and tore the wreckage apart, moving it further out to sea. I didn't see or hear the dolphin while we were underwater.

After the crash and having to deal with Esme's heartache and worry, I gave up flying but I certainly wasn't going to give up my entertainment. I was definitely interested in the speedboat I almost fell into. It looked like fun and so I bought one.

I spent most of my time on either Lake Ontario or Lake Erie flying across the water. I flew past elegant sailboats and their scrambling crew as I inflicted my huge wake on them and their cursing captains. Watching their acrobatics to keep the boat upright was fascinating so I found suitable sailors and learned to sail. Since I couldn't have a crew I chose to sail smaller boats but I could handle a larger two-man sailboat easily.

A year later I was sailing for the first time in the Atlantic Ocean just out of Portsmouth and had been out for three days. I hadn't hunted in over a week and I decide it was time to go to shore. I was also missing Carlisle and Esme.

I started tacking for home when a storm hit the ocean from the shore and took me further out to sea. Caught up in the gale I enjoyed the challenge of trying to keep the boat from sinking. Twice I had to right the small sailboat when it tipped over because of the rough waves.

When the storm finally left my sailboat behind, my body had used up all of its reserves and I burned with thirst. My mast was broken and there was little way for me to get the boat back to shore. I had resolved to swim back when I heard the thoughts of several dolphin minds.

A pod of dolphins had come to rescue me. Though their thoughts were still alien and undecipherable but I could clearly catch their visual/emotional gist on the matter. They had found a lost 'playmate' and were going to help it, me, get to shore.

I laughed at the thought that I was listening to them but they were intelligent mammals, they also had warm tempting blood. I was very thirsty but not that thirsty, yet.

0oo0

_I'd never be THAT thirsty._ Emmett grimaced, _blech!_

Oh yes, you would, you just don't know, I thought, but continued without comment.


	4. It's Like Dreaming

Based on characters from the Twilight© by Stephanie Meyers. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No copyright infringement is intended.

**A.N. Sorry I haven't been updating as often as I thought I would. Sorry that this is a short chapter.**

The leader of the pod was a huge female. She raised her head above the water and squealed at me. She had a rope in her mental visual focus, the one on my boat. Just as she was about to give another squeal, when I gathered up the rope and threw the length of it toward her. Her reaction was humorous, she cocked her head back and forth, her eyes filled with the view of my face as she regarded me with interest, then she grabbed the rope. She was pleased I got her message so quickly.

She squealed at the four others and the two of them came forward and also took the rope in their mouths and began to pull the boat forward.

They tugged the boat forward with great effort. I pulled the centerboard up letting the sailboat moved easier but now it wanted to turn sideways. I laid upon the deck and slapped the hull to get their attention. The leader swam up and looked at me. I threw the other rope out. She made a different noise and the other two came forward and took that rope in their mouths and began to pull also. The boat now cut through the water properly and was much easier to pull as they headed toward shore.

I had four dolphins pulling my mastless sailboat toward shore. Since I had nothing else to do I listened to them. I stretched out on the deck staring at the wispy clouds of the clearing sky but saw virtually nothing through my own eyes, instead it was the strange sound pictures and underwater views from the dolphins that filled my vision. I listened to their strange alien clicks, squeaks and squeals. It was the closest feeling of dreaming since I became a vampire. I was fascinated by the wavy pictures that their strange other sense provided to see through the murky storm churned water. It helped me not think about how their blood would taste as my thirst grew more intense.

I saw more and more how they just rejected some of the 'noise' and listen carefully to others. It made me think, if I could learn to reject some of the buzzing of minds in my head, it would be wonderful. The noise was a constant irritation when I was close to civilization. When I went to a city or school I was always bombarded with unwanted chatter. I had learned to block some of it but if I could learn to filter some of the unwanted stuff I would be much happier.

I listened as the dolphins pulled. After a few hours the leader stopped them and had them rest and they went hunting. I would have loved to swim with them but my thirst was teetering dangerously. An innocent swim could turn into a deadly hunt if I wasn't very careful.

They played and squealed with delight as they caught fish. They brought me fish too thinking I would need to eat also.

I took the offered fish and left it on the deck of the boat, I didn't want to offend my 'rescuers'.

It took all day and half the night to get close enough to shore that I could see land. When we were less than a mile from shore the lead dolphin squealed at the others. They dropped the ropes and looked up at me expectantly. I could see the shoreline visual in each of their minds with 'happy/playmate' emotions augmenting the vision. I nodded. They nodded and left, jumping and splashing playfully.

There was still no way to get the boat to shore so I jumped into the water and swam. When I reached the shore there were no thoughts but my own and no scents as tempting as that of the dolphins, but I slaked my thirst with lesser tempting but energy filled blood.

Quickly, I found that I was over two hundred miles south of where I had started. As I ran north toward where I parked my car at the harbor I could hear the ebb and flow of minds as I came within and out of range of large populations. It was so interesting comparing it to the dolphins sound picture sensations. I tried to filter the incoming thoughts. _My mind is very quick_, I thought. _I should be able to do this. _They were all voices so there wasn't as much to distinguish them from each other, not like the difference between fish and seaweed. It was a lot of work, and as I was used to cramming the whole thing into a mental compartment ignoring the noise, it was much easier. I stopped trying after I heard too much unwanted chatter.

00ooo00

_Get to the gold! _Emmett whined.

"You wanted the 'whole story'," I answered raising an eyebrow.

_Get on with it then, _he sighed and flipped the coin ten feet in the air and caught it without looking.


	5. Shipwreck

Based on characters from the Twilight© by Stephanie Meyers. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No copyright infringement is intended.

A few months later I was sailing again just off the coast where my airplane had crashed. The weather was rough close to shore but there were no storms expected just a little rain and light wind.

I was about five miles offshore when I heard the sound of dolphin minds and squeals, this time there were aggressive and distressed emotions. I realized that I had learned more than I thought from my time with the dolphin pod, I could almost understand them. A gang of young males were harassing a female. I thought only humans did awful things like gang rape.

00ooo00

_How does that work? _Emmett was instantly intrigued.

"Shut up," I complained. He was quiet but still trying to visualize something not quite right. I started talking over his disturbing images and his thoughts thankfully returned to the gold coin.

00ooo00

They held her underwater until she was almost drowning before they would let her get a breath. She was desperate to get away, she had been fighting but there were too many of them and she was quickly running out of energy. I listened and located where they were.

I was angry, I couldn't prevent this from happening to humans without risk of triggering a hunting response but no one would see or care here. I immediately I knew I wasn't going to let them continue with their horrid little sex game so I dropped my sail, jumped into the water and quickly swam toward their mental voices. Some ignored me when I suddenly arrived, but two of the lowest status males swam away quickly. The ones with more status continued pursuing the female tiring her even more.

When I tried to get between them and the female they turned on me. One rammed me in the stomach. He was badly damaged and was knocked unconscious for a moment. His attack, of course, didn't affect me other than move me a few feet in the water. The others tried some sound tricks on me that also had no effect.

So fast they didn't know what had hit them I gave each one what I considered a light punch in the ribs, sensing the warm blood pool under their skin with the deep bruising I'd given them. They swam away with their hearts pounding in fear helping their semi-conscious friend remain close to the surface.

When she saw me she recognized me; I saw a visual memory of me on the beach walking away. I helped her get to the surface. She took a deep breath and relaxed. I took in a breath and her scent confirmed that she was my friend from the airplane crash. She kept an eye on me and I could hear her 'happy/toy/playmate' thoughts revolving around her visual of my swimming figure.

I stayed with her, easily treading water, as she rested near the surface for a while. I could hear the males off in the distance but they had not gone far. She tried to swim but she was too weak. I caught some fish and fed her to help get her strength back. A few hours later, when I was sure that she could swim unaided, I swam back to my sailboat.

She followed me, of course. I set sail and continued my aimless journey until I caught something interesting from the visual and sound pictures of the dolphin. There was an old sunken ship just below us.

00ooo00

"Now we get to the gold!" Emmett said enthusiastically, his eyes lighting up, his attention returned to me and the battered coin sat still in his hand.

"Emmett!" I whispered.

_Shutting up. _He thought and rolled his eyes.

00ooo00

I had never seen a sunken ship, so I thought I would go have a look. I dropped the sail, set my floating anchor and stripped off my still wet clothes down to my shorts. I dove into the water and the dolphin followed me down into the depths.

Her ranging sound pictures lead me toward the ship. When I started heading toward it she seemed to know that's where we were going so she kept her sound pictures focused on the wreck.

Schools of fish surrounded the entire ship. They kept their distance from us as I looked for anything interesting. I swam around the ancient ship with strange looking sea life covering the collapsed wooden hull.

I swam along the bottom of the ocean following the line of the ship and sand swirled from my movement. I caught a glimpse of something long, large and totally encrusted with sea life jutting out from beneath the wooden hull.

00ooo00

Emmett guffawed loudly absentmindedly, only once, then pressed his lips together. Trying hard not to grin foolishly.

00ooo00

It looked like the shape of a canon. I broke away some of the encrustation and found I was right it was a canon.

I was excited thinking I had found an old warship. I swished the sand away with my hand to get a better look at the canon. I wanted to see if I could find any markings on it instead I saw an interesting gleam in the sand nearby. I swished the sand again and discovered a small pile of gold coins. I tried to pick up the few coins I saw but they were stuck together. I wound up pulling up a large clump of gold coins from the sand.

00ooo00

_Two clumps? _Emmett was incredulous again. I stopped talking so he waved his hand for me to continue.

00ooo00

It was incredible, I felt like a little kid living one of the fairy tales my mother used to tell me. I pulled two big clumps of gold coins from the sand, resting them on the encrusted canon. I just stared at the mass of coins. Each clump was about a foot square and half as tall. What they were worth I had no idea but they were pretty with their crude Spanish markings.

00ooo00

_Yeah they are pretty. _He held out the coin for a moment before it went back into the air.


	6. The Treasure Hunt

Based on characters from the Twilight© by Stephanie Meyers. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No copyright infringement is intended.

**A.N. Sorry it took so long to finish this up. Life threw a couple of hard balls and I couldn't avoid them. But here is the finale of the story.**

Mesmerized by the coins and the stories brought back to me from my fading human memories I was motionless until the dolphin's thoughts of danger roused me. She had gone to the surface for air and headed back down when she 'pictured' a shark close to me. She attacked it, bumping it several times with her nose driving it away. She protected me from it, not knowing that it couldn't have hurt me. She sidled up to me nudging me concerned when I didn't move. I stroked her smooth skin to calm her fear and felt the warmth of her body. Hearing the blood pulse through her pounding heart, thirst flared in me for a second before I restrained the feeling.

Carlisle would never believe me if I left the coins sitting here so I picked up one clump and swam to the sailboat and loaded it onboard. I stared at the gold shimmering in the sunlight; it was very pretty, especially with tiny rainbows glittering across it. It would make a wonderful gift for someone who had everything. I thought about it for a split second - gold fever stuck me. Even though I had no use for the money the gold coins were just so pretty I couldn't help myself. I swam back down and picked up another one and then another.

The dolphin had followed me back down and helped me swish the sand away from the canon with her tail. We found even more gold buried beneath the canon. I made four more trips down to the wreck and had to stop. Not because my sailboat could hold no more but because suddenly I recognized my worthless greed. I wasn't stealing and no one would miss the gold so I was just playing with it, my treasure like a child pirate has their trifling treasure. So how much did I really need? I threw the last clump overboard as atonement for my stupidity.

_No, now THAT was stupid, _Emmett huffed, picturing me throwing an enormous pile gold overboard.

I ignored him and continued.

I thought I would bury it and only take some out every once in a while to surprise Carlisle or Esme with a coin as a present. There was an abandoned well in the wooded area on our property where I could hide it. No one would find it there. Carlisle never sold any property he owned so I could leave it there until I needed it or until I found a better place to bury my treasure.

My trip was over, I was too excited about my treasure. I set sail for the shore. I needed to find a way to get the gold home. If I came to shore at the crowded marina someone would see the gold and it would be a disaster.

I decided to dump the gold overboard offshore down the beach from the marina and take the gold home after dark one clump at a time. Then I remembered a stretch of deserted shoreline that had a road running along it, it was further away but there was a prominent outcrop that I could use as a landmark. I could drive my car to the beach and load all of the gold at one time.

The dolphin followed me all the way to the place I had pictured in my mind. At twilight, I dumped the gold overboard and sailed off to the marina but she did not follow.

That night about an hour after midnight the dolphin swam around me as I lifted one clump from the ocean floor, carried it to shore and loaded it into my car. I was taking only one clump of gold and left the others sitting on the ocean floor, I didn't need it and I only wanted to give a unique present to Carlisle and Esme anyway.

The dolphin squealed with surprise as I started the car. I left the car running, waded out and stroked her smooth skin and thanked her for the good time and told her I was glad she was safe. She pictured me leaving, I could see her visual memory of me walking down the beach after the plane crash and she squealed a sad note.

I pointed toward the ocean and imitated her happy squeal and pointed toward shore and imitated her sad squeal, poor imitations at best but she nodded her whole body a positive sign that she understood.

Back at the car, I waved goodbye before I drove off. She did a tail flip and disappeared underwater.

I broke off about half the clump, a nice chunk of about a hundred coins. I dropped the rest down the old well, my pirate treasure. I spent time removing the clusters of coins from the clump, carefully freeing them into individual coins.

'Is it still there?" Emmett asked.

I rolled my eyes and turned to walk away. Emmett grabbed my arm and motioned that his mouth was shut. This was fun. Now that I had him in the grip of the story, he had to hear the ending.

For Carlisle and Esme's anniversary I gave them a pouch full of Spanish gold doubloons. They were impressed with the gift and I told them about the ship and the dolphin. Both he and Esme were amused with my story saying that the story was the better gift than the coins.

I anonymously donated the rest of the cleaned coins to the small local museum. They were able to use some to trade for other artifacts, the resulting display of their new collection increased attendance helping them to raise funds to improve the museum.

Years passed, things happened and I forgot about the buried gold.

Ten years later the stock market crash and the resulting depression had decimated my stocks and when I arrived home a couple years later, I had very little cash reserves. Carlisle's funds were in great shape but not mine. I wondered what I could do for funds to beef up my reserve cash and then I remembered my pirate treasure.

Esme and Carlisle joined me in my treasure hunt; they wanted to see my treasure too. We drove to Portsmouth and I pulled up the clump of gold from the well and suddenly remembered the other clumps of gold just off shore. Surely that would be enough to get a good savings account going and pay the taxes and utilities on my houses for a few years.

We drove out to the shore. I waded out and to my surprise the dolphin was there, with a small pod of her own. I greeted her and introduced her to Esme and Carlisle. Her pod consisted of her daughter and son and his mate. She led us to the spot where I had left the gold and we were staggered by the sight of more than just gold coins.

She had been gathering treasure for me from the surrounding area. There were raw emeralds, sapphires and rubies mixed in with gold chains and gold bars. All types of pendants and rings and even a gold dinner plate and spoon.

_Holy cow! Really? _Emmett's eyes got large as he thought of Fort Knox sized gold bars and emeralds, sapphires and rubies the size of bird eggs.

I glared at him shaking my head, my fingers indicated that they were all small in size.

_Oh_, he thought disappointed and he was quiet again as I finished my story.

We stayed and swam with them, playing for a while before we left. The dolphin was happy I had returned. Carlisle and Esme could see it too. I hugged the dolphin and thanked her. We loaded the treasure in the car. She flipped and danced on the water as we left.

Carlisle and I agreed that the jewelry needed to go to a museum along with the gold bars, the dinner plate and spoon. We anonymously donated it to another small local museum. Carlisle's contacts sold most of the gold coins and stones for cash to bolster my reserve savings.

I went back and swam with her and her children once more before we moved across the country. I don't know if she's still alive.

"The end, you can talk now."

"Nice story, Edward. Do you think we could find that shipwreck and get some emeralds for Rosalie?" he asked.

I could see the thoughts traveling slowly through his head as he twirled the coin around his fingers. Not only had gold fever hit him, treasure fever was settling in. He pictured piles of gold coins, rubies and emeralds and Rosalie smiling suggestively at him, as if she needed a reason, ugh.

"No. Only she knows where those came from," I said and with a carefully aimed lightening fast tap I flipped the coin from his hand and caught it. I could feel the tiny indentions in the soft gold and the warped edges. Oh well it was his coin now.

I could sense Emmett's urge to wrestle me to the ground to get his coin back was being tempered by his thoughts of Rosalie's happiness and his need for my cooperation. This was very hard on him he _really_ wanted to wrestle, he didn't care about the coin, it was just grounds to jump me.

"Come on! Introduce me to the dolphin. I'll get her to take me on a treasure hunt. I need a great present for Rosalie's anniversary," he whined, halfheartedly grabbing at the coin in my hand.

"Unless you have some buried in the yard?" He eyed the gold coin and me suspiciously the thought finally filtering through; he had caught the word 'most' in my description of the coins and stones.

"Bite me," I said laughing and dashed out the door with his coin, leaving Emmett far behind running and growling. He would get his wrestling match, uneven as it would be but it would make for a better birthday present.

I might even give him a gem or two, if I could find where I hid them. So maybe I would take him on a treasure hunt.


End file.
